


Skin

by OzQueen



Series: babysitters100 [42]
Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Body Paint, Established Relationship, F/F, Nudity, Painting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-11
Updated: 2013-07-11
Packaged: 2017-12-19 03:58:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/879187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OzQueen/pseuds/OzQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claudia and Ashley spend a sunny afternoon painting each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to gloriafan for helping me develop the idea, and for beta'ing this one for me!

* * *

It was too hot to keep the windows closed, but Claudia made sure the gauzy curtains were pulled across so anyone in the building opposite couldn't see what was going on. At least, not clearly.

"You're such a prude," Ashley murmured, combing her fingers through Claudia's long hair slowly.

Claudia was too relaxed to really argue that much. She watched the curtains move in the breeze, her eyes half-closed as Ashley's fingers stroked across her scalp and down through her hair again.

"I wish your roommates would go out of town more often," Ashley said after a moment.

"Me too," Claudia sighed. She closed her eyes and pushed back against Ashley's hands stirring through her hair again. "I wish I could afford my own place."

"You could move in with me," Ashley said lightly. She gathered Claudia's hair and swept it to the side to start tracing the arch of her spine.

"We fight too much." Claudia brought her knees to her chest and leaned forward, humming quietly as Ashley's fingers slipped over her skin.

"But we could have plenty more afternoons like this," Ashley said, whining a little. Her thumbs brushed the small of Claudia's back. "It's been ages."

Claudia smiled against her knees, imagining the pout on Ashley's face. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Ashley sniffed. "I hate that. It's so sentimental, and not true. Absence makes the heart forgetful."

Claudia blinked and watched the curtains drift back and forth as the breeze outside lifted again. Street noise blended pleasantly, the slow hush of traffic and occasional voices and laughter floating into the apartment.

"Carey would kill you if she knew you'd left your paints all over the living room floor," Ashley said suddenly.

Claudia flicked her eyes to her easel, propped by the window, the paint still drying slowly on a rough imitation of the view outside. "She won't know. I'll put them away before she gets back."

Ashley shifted, slowly rising to her feet and stretching her arms above her head in full view of the window. "That reminds me," she said, "I've brought you a present."

This stirred Claudia a little. "What is it?" She watched Ashley cross the room to where she'd left her overnight bag, still on the floor by the front door. Sun and shadow moved over her skin, and Claudia watched through her lashes as Ashley bent to retrieve the gift she'd bought.

"Is it candy?" she asked, half kidding, half hopeful.

"No," Ashley retorted. She pulled a box from between the folds of clothing in the bag and held it up so Claudia could see. Body paints.

Claudia smiled.

Ashley knelt down behind her and Claudia stretched out on her stomach, her hair spilling over the floorboards beside her. She folded her arms and rested her chin against the back of her hand. "You're explaining any paint spots on the floor to Carey."

"Just stay still," Ashley said simply. She pulled a few pots of paint from the box and examined them.

Claudia waited quietly. "I feel like we're taking things too slow," she said after a moment, and stretching out in the sun on the warm floor only made it worse. "We've only got another 24 hours together before Carey and Chris come back."

"Not everything has to be frenzied," Ashley said. She ran her fingers down Claudia's spine again. "Don't move."

Claudia tensed just slightly as the cool, wet tip of the paint brush touched the warm skin at the small of her back. Ashley spiralled it slightly, and Claudia tried to keep track of the pattern in her mind as the thin brush trailed over her skin.

"Have you ever thought about getting a tattoo?" Ashley asked.

Claudia allowed herself a short laugh before she held her body still again. "Right, because I'm not already disappointing enough to my parents."

Ashley swept the brush down to Claudia's hip and coiled it again, leaving behind a thin spiral of black paint.

"Anyway," Claudia muttered, a little annoyed that Ashley hadn't leapt to her defence, "I don't really like the idea of something so permanent on my skin. My tastes change a lot. I'd never stay happy with something."

"Hm," Ashley said, in a tone that made Claudia think the same statement applied to her.

Claudia closed her eyes, her lids orange against the sunlight falling through the thin curtains. She felt the paintbrush flick once, twice against the low curve of her spine, and she shivered.

"Still," Ashley tutted. "Keep still."

The brush trailed over her skin slowly, carefully. Claudia tried to picture what had been done, but it was difficult – she kept drifting off, the sensation electric and light. It was oddly comforting and familiar.

In her mind, she pictured a swirling pattern of black vines across the breadth of her lower back, weaving flowers and leaves curling around one another and reaching their way up to the nape of her neck.

Ashley let the brush trail down Claudia's side, towards her breast, and Claudia squirmed and let out a soft noise as the sensation crawled over her skin and tightened her nerves.

"Will you let me do you next?" she asked hopefully.

"Okay. But I'm not done yet."

"Are you going to use any colour?"

"No. I like it like this. It looks like wrought iron."

Claudia listened to her own steady breathing as Ashley filled out petals and swirling leaves across her back, the paint cool and wet. Ashley bent close and blew gently, and Claudia felt a thrill course across her skin and settle at the back of her neck.

"It's mostly dry already," Ashley said approvingly, screwing the top back on the pot of paint tightly. "But don't move for a moment. I want it to set properly."

"Maybe next time we should try the pottery scene from _Ghost_ ," Claudia suggested, watching Ashley out of the corner of her eye. She grinned when she saw her trying to fight a smile.

"I hate that movie," Ashley said.

"I _love_ that movie," Claudia declared. She eased herself up, trying to move in a way that wouldn't mar the swirls of paint across her back. "Your turn."

Ashley settled herself on the floor, but Claudia patted the back of her thigh. "Nope," she said. "Roll over."

Ashley looked over her should in surprise. "Why?"

Claudia twirled a brush in her hands and lifted her eyebrows. "You've got a canvas on your front, don't you?"

Ashley blew a short breath out and rolled over, folding her arms behind her head and gazing up at the ceiling. "What are you going to paint?"

"I don't know," Claudia mused, pulling a pot of green paint from the box and contemplating it. "Something bright."

Ashley made a tutting noise, but smiled.

Sunflowers, Claudia decided. She set the brush purposefully aside and dipped her finger into the paint. She started on Ashley's belly, dabbing the paint quickly, faster and more haphazard than the careful ministrations that had been performed on her own skin. She thought Ashley probably disapproved of her technique a little – or at least longed to correct her somehow – but she didn't say anything, which Claudia was thankful for.

She stopped worrying about it after a few minutes had passed, though. Painting was relaxing, and painting on Ashley's body was definitely more fun than painting on an actual canvas. She trailed green stems down the centre of Ashley's stomach, feeling her muscles tense and twitch under the firm strokes of her fingers. She dipped her thumb into another pot and had bright yellow petals burst and bloom over the low slopes of Ashley's breasts, her skin soft and warm under her touch. She dotted dark concentric circles for the sunflower seeds and grinned as Ashley squirmed at the sensation.

Claudia poked at her ribs, blurring the dark centre of one flower, and Ashley yelped and caught her wrist.

"You're doing that on purpose," she huffed.

"What?" Claudia asked innocently.

"Stop _tickling_ ," Ashley said, and she tried to glare but it didn't really work.

Claudia grinned and leaned over to kiss her, her dark hair falling down to Ashley's chest, sticking to the wet paint swirled over her skin.

"You're ruining it," Ashley protested softly, but she pulled her closer all the same so Claudia's chest was pressed to hers, the paint smudging between them.

The smell of paint and warm skin was overwhelming and made Claudia's head pound. It was the smell of a hundred afternoons and comfort – she could feel something swell in her chest as she leaned into Ashley's kiss.

Ashley broke off with a soft gasp, yellow paint smudged onto her palm. She transferred it to Claudia's hip and looked up at her helplessly. "I spent so much time on yours," she said. "We're going to ruin it."

Claudia purposefully slid her chest against Ashley's and grinned as the slick paint mixed between them. "We're totally going to get paint on the floor," she said.


End file.
